PBS: What's At Stake

What viewers would lose under budget cuts—it’s more than Big Bird and Elmo.

- John Russell

You’ve likely seen the viral YouTube video of Elmo getting fired. The parody clip was posted March 17, a day after the White House released an outline of proposed federal funding cuts signaling the Trump administration’s 2018 budgetary priorities. The cuts include the elimination of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS. In the clip, Elmo learns that he’s being laid off from the gig he’s had on PBS’s Sesame Street since the mid-’80s.

“I got calls from people saying, ‘I’ve seen this film you produced!’ ” says PBS President Paula Kerger. “And I knew we hadn’t produced anything. That [someone] would create a viral video like that speaks volumes about the fact that people care about public media.”

Reaction to the proposed cuts has been swift, with celebrities and private citizens voicing their outrage on Twitter under hashtags like #JusticeforBigBird. “It seems insane to have to defend the arts, but here we are,” tweeted Beauty and the Beast’s Josh Gad. Christina Applegate noted that her daughter was allowed to watch only PBS’s kids shows, while comedian Billy Eichner posted photos of Big Bird with Michelle Obama from the former first lady’s 2015 guest appearance on Billy on the Street.